Smacking the chop

ascott72 · Joined: 12 Jun 2006 Posts: 124

Sailed off of Wells Island the other weekend, powered up on a 4.7. Water was extremely choppy, especially towards the WA side. Anyway, my board was smacking the chop pretty good. After a couple of hours of sailing I had a headache. Just curious to see if anyone else gets headaches from chop?

jaygiddings · Joined: 27 May 2001 Posts: 3

That happens to me every now and then if the chop is just right.

More common I get mild whiplash from all the wipeouts I do.

isobars · Joined: 12 Dec 1999 Posts: 20935

Dodge it.
Let your knees give with it/soak it up.
Lean farther out off the board so your legs are less vertical so less of their motion is transferred to your body.
Weight one side of your board when hitting it so it doesn't hit the whole bottom at once.
Use a smoother-riding board on days like that.
Go find some smoother water.
Jump over the worst ones.
Go faster and just skim the tops.
Pinch higher/return lower to change your impact angle.
Sail at Vantage. It's windier than the corridor many summers and is so incredibly choppy it'll make the corridor's worst day seem like ice skating by comparison.
Take an aspirin.

Mike \m/